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Summary

A hearing aid is a small electronic device that you wear in or behind your ear. It makes some sounds louder. A hearing aid can help people hear more in both quiet and noisy situations.

Hearing aids help people who have hearing loss from damage to the small sensory cells in the inner ear. The damage can occur as a result of disease, aging, or injury from noise or certain medicines.

There are different types of hearing aids. They differ by size, their placement on or inside the ear, and how much they amplify sound. The hearing aid that will work best for you depends on what kind of hearing loss you have and how severe it is.

If you think that you need a hearing aid, you have two different options:

• Over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids, which you can buy directly. You don't have to get a hearing exam from a healthcare professional first. OTC hearing aids are for adults who have mild to moderate hearing loss.
• Prescription hearing aids, which you get from an audiologist (a health professional who specializes in hearing and balance disorders). The audiologist will program the hearing aids, based on how severe your hearing loss is. You may need prescription hearing aids or other devices if you have significant or complicated hearing loss.

NIH: National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders

Start Here

• Hearing Aids (Food and Drug Administration)
• Hearing Aids (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders) Also in Spanish
• Hearing Aids and Personal Sound Amplification Products: What to Know (Food and Drug Administration) Also in Spanish
• OTC Hearing Aids: What You Should Know (Food and Drug Administration)
• Struggling to Hear? Tiny Devices Can Keep You Connected (National Institutes of Health) Also in Spanish

Related Issues

• Buying a Hearing Aid (American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery)
• Hearing Aids: How to Choose the Right One (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
• How to Get Hearing Aids (Food and Drug Administration)

Specifics

• Other Hearing Devices and Products (Food and Drug Administration)
• Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders) Also in Spanish
• Types of Hearing Aids (Food and Drug Administration)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Hearing Aids (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Consistency of hearing aid use, speech perception and vocabulary in hearing...
• Article: The Role of Hearing Aids in Improving Dual-Task Gait Performance in...
• Article: Sound Localization in Single-Sided Deafness; Outcomes of a Randomized Controlled Trial...
• Hearing Aids -- see more articles

Find an Expert

• Directory of Organizations (Deafness and Communication Disorders) (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders)
• Find an Audiologist (American Academy of Audiology)
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Children

• Going to the Audiologist (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
• Hearing Aids (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish

Teenagers

• Hearing Aids (For Teens) (Nemours Foundation)

Patient Handouts

• Devices for hearing loss (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish